Twenty minutes. Whatever confession or revelation she had, it took twenty minutes to destroy her relationship with her brother.
"Which direction did she go?"
"East. On foot. Looked like she was sleepwalking."
Before I can process that, my phone buzzes again. Gleb, my head of security.
"Sir, we have a problem."
The leather steering wheel creaks under my grip. "What?"
"Kaz took a team out this morning. Unauthorized."
The temperature drops twenty degrees. "Where?"
"Chicago. They picked someone up off the street."
Every muscle in my body locks. The memory crashes over me: Sofia last night, her face when I talked about Mikhail's bonsai. The way she'd pressed into me when I showed her how to prune it, her body warm and trusting against mine.
"Who?"
"The Rosetti girl, sir. Your… the woman from the compound."
Time stops.
"Where is he taking her?"
"The old warehouse. The one we use for… tribunals."
Executions. Where traitors die screaming. Where my father used to take men who betrayed the bratva. Where the drains in the floor run red.
I pull over hard, tires shrieking against asphalt. My fist goes through the side window in one explosive motion, glass shattering around my knuckles. The pain is nothing. Clean. Clarifying. Blood drips onto expensive leather as pieces of window fall like frozen rain.
She's there. In that warehouse. With Kaz.
My mother is dead. Died calling for Mikhail while I held the woman responsible. I wasn't there. Chose her over my mother's last breath. The guilt of it burns like acid in my chest.
I gave Sofia everything. The truth about my father. My shame. My weakness. The way I broke on that porch, sobbing like the child I never got to be. And she ran without a word.
Now Kaz has her. Has what's mine.
The rage doesn't dissipate. It crystallizes into something useful. Into the cold fury that's kept me alive this long. Every mark I left on her body is probably fading while Kaz plans herexecution. The thought makes me want to tear the world apart with my bare hands.
She doesn't get to die. Not until she explains. Not until I understand. Not ever.
I dial Gleb back. "How many men do we have? Not loyal to the family. Loyal to me personally."
His pause speaks volumes. "Thirty for certain. Maybe forty if I call in the markers."
"Call them all. Armed and ready in forty minutes."
"Sir, if you move against Kaz openly…"
"He took what's mine."
"This could split the family permanently. The old guard still respects his claim as cousin. If you attack him directly…"
"Then let it split."
